“I'd much rather have Corey Liuget at 20 than Nick Fairley at 8,” Mayock said.

And Mayock would rather have Alabama’s Marcell Dareus at any spot.

“I think Nick Fairley might have a tiny bit more upside than Dareus, but Dareus has a higher floor,” Mayock said. “I think you know what you’re getting with Dareus.”

If that is true, it likely is based in part on the fact Dareus played more in college and played in a pro-style offense under Nick Saban.

“I’m ready for the league,” Dareus said at the Combine. “We did all the plays the NFL teams would do and did a lot of things that came with it -- a lot of stunts, a lot of things we had to learn, a lot of coverages

and calls. I’m ready for all that.”

It is likely that Dareus goes in the top 5, perhaps to Denver at No.2. Fairley is expected to follow by 12 and Luiget, whose stock has only risen with strong workouts, by 20.

Whether two more tackles go in the first round – making it the second-most tackles taken in the first round in the past 10 years – depends on whether a team wants to take a chance.

Baylor’s Phil Taylor, a raw 334-pounder, is believed to have a lot of potential as a nose tackle but has a foot injury that is reportedly causing concern.

Other possible first-rounders are Temple Muhammed Wilkerson, a good athlete who has yet to be tested against top competition, and Oregon State’s Stephen Paea, who played rugby as a child in New Zealand, forced four fumbles in 2010 and set a Combine record with 49 repetitions in the 225-pound bench press but is coming off a knee injury suffered in Senior Bowl practice.